Foursquare App Shows Check-Ins On A Mock Airport Arrivals Board

‘Arrivals‘ is a Foursquare app styled after a classic airport arrivals board. Its clean and attractive design enhances a user’s experience of the social media platform by showing the location of friends without being too intrusive. The app is intended to be displayed on a spare second screen like a tablet or phone so you can see at a glance where your friends are.

Arrivals is based on a concept by Toby Barnes, who came up with the idea for ‘Where’s Dad,‘ a small glanceable display for his son that shows his current location when he is travelling. Software developer Dan Williams extended that idea with this app, which uses the same style but instead shows where your friends are, with a flip animation occuring each time a location changes. The screen shows the minimum amount of information to try to keep the display as private as possible. There is no timestamp, city, country or name of the person, only the venue and the profile picture. Williams describes the positives of the unobtrusive app:

The screen only updates when a location changes. The animated flicker in the corner of the eye draws the attention but does not interrupt. As a result it gives a constant awareness of location and daily rhythms, with a cascade of checkins at lunchtime and after work.